Getting Topical Help

If you have a question about Windows XP or about a certain utility program that comes with Windows, just ask for help and Windows will supply it. Although the Windows XP help extends to the Web for more complete help topics, you'll find most answers to common Windows questions on your own system and searching your local disk is generally quicker than waiting on a Web search, as the following steps demonstrate:

1.

Open the Help and Support Center window if it is no longer open from the previous section.

2.

After a brief pause, the HSC screen that you saw in Figure 10.1 appears.

The initial Help and Support Center window offers a summary of the help items available to you in an Explorer-like format. Click an item to read more about that topic. When you click a topic, more details emerge from which you can select.

3.

Click the entry labeled Music, video, games and photos. Several topics appear in the left window pane for which you can get more detailed help by clicking on one of the topics.

4.

Click the Music and sounds topic to open that topic and see the related help topics. An overview of the topic appears in the right pane.

5.

Click the Playing and copying music topic to see the help tasks shown in Figure 10.2.

Figure 10.2. The Help and Support Center helps you get started with playing and recording music.

6.

Click the toolbar's Back button to see the HSC screen before you displayed the detail. As with any Web page, you can click the Back button to return to the previous help screen. If you view several topics in succession, you sometimes want to return to a previous topic. Return to the detail page once again. You can also return to pages you've backed up from by clicking the Forward button.